Chapter 2
Elena was not living where Matteo believed she was living.
That discovery took less than an hour.
The address in the monthly support reports belonged to a renovated three-bedroom townhouse in Lake Forest.
Security.
Private garage.
Excellent schools nearby.
Four thousand eight hundred dollars a month.
Matteo drove there himself.
The house was empty.
Not recently empty.
Completely empty.
No furniture marks.
No toys.
No food.
No child had lived there for months.
The property manager arrived after Julia contacted him.
“Mrs. Bellandi?”
He looked confused.
“She never moved in.”
Matteo stared at him.
“Who pays the rent?”
“A corporate account.”
“Which account?”
The manager checked.
EB Family Support LLC.
Matteo knew the initials.
Elena Bellandi.
The entity had been created after the separation.
Renato arranged it.
According to the reports Matteo received, Elena’s housing costs were paid through that company.
“Who has access?” Julia asked.
The property manager refused to discuss account details without proper authority.
Good.
Matteo was beginning to appreciate people who did not immediately surrender information because of his surname.
They obtained the records through the correct process.
Renato was the managing officer.
Lucille was listed as an authorized financial supervisor.
Elena was not listed at all.
Matteo’s jaw tightened.
Emma sat in the car with her nanny and two security officers.
She knew the actual address.
A small duplex twenty minutes away.
Matteo had never been there.
When they arrived, he almost did not recognize Elena.
She had lost weight.
Her hair was pulled back carelessly.
She wore an old sweatshirt and stood barefoot in the doorway.
Then she saw Emma.
She ran past Matteo.
Emma held out the napkin.
“Mommy. Bread.”
Elena stopped.
For one terrible second, Matteo watched shame cross her face.
She did not want him seeing this.
Not the bread.
Not the house.
Not the refrigerator that contained milk, mustard, half a carton of eggs, and almost nothing else.
Matteo finally spoke.
“I sent fifty thousand dollars every month.”
Elena looked at him.
The expression on her face was not confusion.
It was anger.
“No, you didn’t.”
“Yes.”
“I get eighteen hundred.”
Matteo stared at her.
“What?”
“Eighteen hundred dollars a month.”
“For seven months?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Elena laughed once.
There was nothing amused in it.
“I tried.”
She walked to a kitchen drawer and pulled out a stack of printed correspondence.
“Your cousin told me you reduced support because you were tired of ‘funding my rebellion.’”
Matteo took the first page.
It was written in Renato’s name.
The next was from Lucille’s assistant.
Then another.
And another.
Every document told Elena some version of the same story.
Matteo wanted distance.
Matteo wanted communication restricted.
Matteo would provide basic support but no longer finance her “chosen lifestyle.”
Elena looked at him.
“I thought you were punishing me.”
Matteo felt something colder than rage.
Because he had documents too.
May you like
For seven months, Renato had been telling him Elena refused direct contact and wanted all communication handled through family channels.
Two people had been separated by a wall neither one knew the other had not built.
